Time Flies

I was reading my post from almost a year ago about Lilly not sleeping through the night, and I was struck by how much life can change in a year. Lilly now sleeps 11 or 12 hours at night. Although she is still the sweetest little person I have ever met, she has changed so much in the past year. Now, she walks, talks, and roars like a lion. Lilly hides her pacifiers in her toys and then days later rejoices when she finds them. She sleeps with up to seven pacifiers in her crib at a time. When Lilly turned one, she found her throwing arm and began throwing her pacifiers out of her crib. I quickly grew tired of constantly fetching her launched pacifiers and came up with a brilliant plan to rid our house of pacifiers. That plan lasted a day. Now, my philosophy is that she finds comfort in pacifiers and the problem of her throwing them out of her crib isn't really a problem. When she turns two, I'll reevaluate the situation. Maybe she will be ready to move on from pacifiers.

People have told us time and again that this time with little ones running around the house will fly, and they are right. Matt and I agree that we had to experience this for ourselves, before we could understand what people meant. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to stay home with my baby during the day. I haven't missed anything, and I cherish every moment. Apparently, I have been so busy cherishing, that I haven't taken the time to blog much. Sorry!

Lilly is interested in dumping toys out and sometimes putting them back where they go. She also loves to read. She will either bring us a book to read, or she'll even read to herself. One book, Moo, Baa, La La La, involves three singing pigs saying, "La La La," and on the next page are the words, "No, no." Lilly has started to point both of her index fingers and say, "No, no" as we read the book together. I love it! Recently, Lilly turned to my in-laws' dog, Oscar, a dachshund, and said, "No, dog dog!" because he was sticking his nose on her too much. "No" is Lilly's favorite word right now. She says it even when she doesn't mean it. I will ask her if she wants a drink, and as she shakes her head "No" she reaches for the cup to get a drink. I can't help but laugh. Matt and I don't say "No" a lot, so I'm not sure why she's obsessed, but I understand that it is a common word for toddlers to use.

Speaking of words, here is a list of words Lilly can say, I might be missing a few:

1. No
2. Mama
3. Dada
4. Hi
5. Dog
6. Duck
7. Roar (as in the sound a lion makes)
8. Baby
9. Whoa
10. Water (everything that she drinks is water, regardless of what it really is) :)
11. More
12. Nose
13. Eye
14. Hair

She can point to all of her different facial features (i.e. eyes, nose, mouth, etc). She also twirls in a circle to "Ring Around the Rosie" and giggles when I fall down on the couch. When we get to the falling down part of the song, she races to the ottoman and lays her head down, giggling the entire time. She also knows it's funny to put sliced olives on her fingers.

I could go on and on about how wonderful Lilly is to me.

Catch Up

I took a few months off of blogging, but Lilly didn't take a break from growing sweeter and cuter. The blog today isn't really about any particular incident, rather it is more of a chance for me to catch up on the events of the last few months. My goal in writing this blog is for me to have an outlet to share adventures in raising our kids, but also so I can remember and share my experiences with my children.


Lilly's first birthday was a blast. We had about 30 people in our home at one time. We were bursting at the seams! The theme of the party was "Under the Sea", since Lilly goes crazy every time she sees fish. She had a lot of fun, and looked so cute with her dark pink tutu and pigtails. I made her cake, which was the shape of a fish and even attempted to ice the cake with bags and tips-a first for me! Although the cake was far from perfect, I had fun making it and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. I ordered cupcakes from a local bakery to relieve some of the stress of the party. They were delicious and also followed the fish theme.

Since the party, Lilly has had tons of fun playing with all of the toys and books she received for her birthday. Our living room is essentially a toy pit that Matt and I happen to watch tv in.

In July, the same week Lilly turned 13 months, she started to walk independently. She had been walking with assistance since she was nine months old, but she spent four months gaining balance and confidence to walk alone. She is so cute! She enjoys holding our hand when she walks, but if she gets excited she will stand on her tippy toes and "run" as fast as she can to whatever has caught her attention. She's actually pretty fast, and we have to watch her even more closely than before around stairs. Lilly can get up stairs pretty well, but we are scared of her going down the stairs.

For her birthday, Lilly was given a Dora doll. The doll opens and closes its eyes depending on how it is positioned. Lilly loves that doll! So much so, that I went and bought her another doll, one that has a pacifier so she can have a couple of dolls to play with. She carries the dolls around and pokes the eyes while saying "eye". I had no idea a one year old would be interested in dolls. I figured dolls wouldn't be interesting until two or three. Boy, was I wrong!

Lilly has two teeth (both on the bottom) and is working on getting a few on the top. Although she is still sweet and usually happy, I can tell she is uncomfortable. For a week, she didn't nap and was up during the night screaming. Normally I avoid giving Lilly medicine, but the screams told me that she was in some serious agony. Plus, she needed to sleep. I think in about four weeks, Lilly will have another tough teething time. I've noticed that her teething gets bad every four weeks.

One of Lilly's favorite things to do is to play outside. She was given a truck and wagon for her birthday, and she goes crazy every time she sees them in our garage. We have to let her go for a spin in our driveway or on our sidewalk. She looks so serious when she's riding, but I think she is just taking in her surroundings. The truck has a cool horn that she likes to press while we push her around our driveway. The wagon has seat-backs and seat-belts, which means it is much more advanced than the wagon I played with as a kid. Lilly holds on tightly to the sides of the wagon when she's riding. She loves trees, grass, and a good breeze. Although I do believe Lilly will be girlie, I also believe she will be an outdoor girl, too.

My Favorite Time of Day

Growing up, I would be the grumpiest person in the morning. I hated mornings--Correction: I loathed mornings.-- My idea of the perfect day would begin at 10:00a.m. Now that I have done research on child psychology and sleep behavior, I know that kids are chemically programmed to have late starts to their days. Their brains function at a much higher level if they can begin the thinking process at around 9:00 in the morning. This explains a lot. Through my college days I would stay up late and get up mid-morning, if possible.

Now that I'm an adult, and more importantly a parent, I have a drastic change of heart when it comes to my favorite time of day. Almost like clockwork, my internal alarm goes off at 6a.m. I scurry down the hall with the eager anticipation that is only equal to a child's anticipation of great surprises waiting for her on Christmas morning. I peek my head into Lilly's room and inhale slowly and deeply. The sigh that emits from my body is of pure contentment. It took me 27 years to realize what contentment feels like. If the morning is really perfect, Lilly will still be asleep breathing deeply as her rosy cheeks surround her half open mouth. I usually watch her sleep for a little while before jumping back in bed to snuggle with my stillnotsuchamorningperson husband. At around 7:00 I hear rustling from Lilly's room and know she is awake and starving! I pick up my bundle of love and squeeze and kiss her all the way back to my bedroom. Then, our family of three snuggle in bed while Lilly eats and takes breaks to grab Daddy's nose or brush her arm at him, making sure she still has his rapt, although very groggy, attention. It's obvious Matt enjoys this time of day as much as I do. The impossible to wake man has no problem smiling and softly talking to his legacy. He enjoys every pulled hair, every slobbery kiss she offers, and every chance he has to connect with his family. Matt and I often link hands as our creation lays between us. It is in those moments that I most feel like we are a unit. Our entire world is in that bed. We have each other.

Spring Garden

I finished planting my garden today. I have onions, lettuce, carrots, peppers, and peas planted. I might try to plant radishes, beans, and tomatoes on our deck, or I'll wait to plant those veggies when the current crop is complete. I understand why so many people enjoy gardening. There is a great sense of accomplishment and peace when working in the dirt. The only sounds I hear in the morning are birds frantically building nests. Our poor neighbors have starlings moving into their grill. We have a very cute little bird, I think it's a robin, sitting patiently in a beautiful nest in the smaller of our two trees in the yard. She doesn't seem to mind me gardening in front of her brood. However, Lilly and I have stopped taking trips to the tree to admire the blossoms out of respect for the young family. Gardening the way I'm doing it is completely impractical; after the cost of the raised garden kit, seeds, and soil, there is zero financial gain. However, if I successfully grow anything, I'll be happy. Plus, Lilly gets the benefits of "helping" me take care of something and of picking the finished product. She laughs when she's watching me mess around in the dirt. She's a funny little girl.